PUTRAJAYA: The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) should be entitled to rely on Section 117 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CPC) to seek the remand of suspects pending investigations, prosecutors said.
In a petition of appeal filed in the Court of Appeal yesterday, the prosecution said judicial commissioner Roslan Mat Nor erred in law when holding that anti-graft investigators could not utilise Section 117 of the CPC as the MACC Act 2009 contains specific provisions governing arrest and remand for offences under the Act.
“The High Court failed to take into consideration that when there is no specific provision under Section 49(1) of the MACC Act to remand a suspect for investigation purposes, the CPC may be relied upon,” it said in the petition sighted by FMT.
The prosecution also said the use of the phrase “may be released from custody” in Section 49(2) of the MACC Act must be interpreted to mean that the remand provisions in the CPC were also available to MACC.
It further said the High Court had erred by not finding that, when read in its entirety, Section 49 of the MACC Act only provides for arrest and investigation, but is silent on remand procedures applicable once an arrest is made.
“As such, we pray that the Court of Appeal set aside the High Court order and restore the decision of the senior assistant registrar made on May 6,” the petition said.
The appeal is fixed for case management in the Court of Appeal on July 21.
The matter arose after a registrar at a Temerloh court, on MACC’s application, ordered the remand of six policemen, including an inspector, under Section 117 of the CPC for allegedly soliciting and accepting bribes amounting to RM5,000.
Exercising his revisionary powers, Roslan called up the matter and set aside the remand orders.
He ruled that MACC’s powers were confined to those given by the MACC Act 2009 and, therefore, it may only rely on Section 49 when carrying out investigations.
In his 43-page judgment, Roslan said Section 49, when read in its entirety, only permits MACC to make an arrest at the tail-end of an investigation.
He said while the MACC Act allows a person to be arrested, the suspect must be freed on bail or bond if investigations were incomplete. However, he can be rearrested without a warrant if bail conditions are breached, Roslan said.
He said MACC may detain the person for up to 24 hours and must seek a remand order under Section 49(4) of the MACC Act for a longer detention period.